On what reportedly turned out to be the hottest day in New York City in more than thirty years, the cast and crew of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Walt Disney Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer Films (not to mention yours truly) braved the sun to celebrate the world premiere of the film earlier this week.

The event kicked off at the beginning of the carpet where New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with the film’s talent and the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mickey Mouse, gathered to declare July 6 as Sorcerer’s Apprentice Day throughout the city. Then the stars began parading down the red and shadeless carpet to the New Amsterdam Theatre, where the screening was to be held. Unfortunately due to carpet position and the sun’s unwilligness to forgive, many of the invitees would eventually break away from the carpet and dash inside, so the opportunities for one poor Disney blogger were rare.

To that end, there were a couple of standouts. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer eventually made his way down the carpet, paying his regards to the press. Star and executive producer Nicolas Cage, however, was truly exceptional, not only responding to all, but answering questions at length, all the while waving to his adoring fans who were staked out across 42nd Street or simply driving by.

It was also very difficult not to be captivated by the lovely Teresa Palmer, who portrays love-interest Becky Barnes. Although one would never know it from her performances, Teresa is an Aussie and has a very heavy (but charming) accent to prove it. The children from the film — Jake Cherry, Peyton List and Robert Capron were also delightful.

After the screening of the movie, the night’s festivities moved on to Bryant Park where the stars of the film along with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turtletaub conducted a brief Q&A session at an event open to all. Although One Republic — whose hit song Secrets is featured in the film – was expected to perform during the mini-concert, cited health reasons kept lead singer Ryan Tedder at bay. Instead, Hollywood Records recording artist Alpha Rev doubled-up on their performance, treating the crowd to an impressive show consisting of about six or seven songs.

MINDstyle has announced that they will launch the Tin Toy vinyl art toy collectible (ATC) at San Diego Comic-con later this month.

Limited to 500 pieces worldwide, the piece is inspired by the title character in the Pixar Animation Studios Short Tin Toy as created by John Lasseter and is often cited as the inspiration behind Pixar’s first feature-length film, Toy Story.

UDReplicas, a subsidiary of Universal Design, made a name for itself when it debuted its officially licensed Dark Knight motorcycle and gear last year. This year, they return to San Diego Comic-con and will offer up three new suits inspired by Disney’s TRON and Marvel’s X-Men and Iron Man.

The TRON suit which features light-up elements will be on display at the Disney booth (3712) but for those unable to attend the event or unable to wait, here’s a sneak peek (make sure you watch it all the way through, or at least jump ahead to :45 or so:

We have received confirmation from Walt Disney Studios that The Debt‘s release date has been moved from its original slated release date of October 1 to Wednesday, December 29, 2010.

In The Debt (rated R by the MPAA for some violence and language), Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) is one of three Israeli Mossad agents who were sent on a secret mission to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal in 1960’s East Berlin. Now, decades later, she must go back undercover and risk everything once again. The film was directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love and Proof) and also stars Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain and Sam Worthington.

With just less than a week before the nationwide release of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Walt Disney Studios has offered up this motion comic which offers to take you on a journey of hundreds of years in just three and a half minutes. If you can forgive the terrible and melodramatic Nicolas Cage impression, the ‘South Park’-inspired power-walking and the fact that Balthazar Blake (a sorcerer to the 777th degree mind you) has to rely on children to protect him with their magic instead of using his own, it’s a bit more backstory to the film.

In late June, Disney, together with leading Asian independent retailer CLOT officially opened the highly anticipated concept store Man Is In The Forest– the first store in the world where ground breaking Disney collaborations with leading designers will be sold under one roof.

Already established fashion leaders in Asia, CLOT has four retail outlets in Asia selling the latest in cutting edge street wear design and labels such as HeadPorter, OriginalFake and much more. Man Is In The Forest will be the fifth retail offering and their second in mainland China.

The Disney/ABC Television Group (DATG) captured 69 Primetime Emmy nominations, it was announced today by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. This total reflects nominations for ABC Television Network, ABC Studios, ABC.com and Disney Channel programming.

The ABC Television Network received 63 nominations, including a first-time, first season Comedy Series nomination for “Modern Family,” which gathered a total of 14 nominations, including recognitions for Art Direction, Casting, Directing, Picture Editing, Guest Actor, Sound Mixing and Writing.

Back in February 2009, we reported on a lawsuit filed by Celador, creator of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, against The Walt Disney Company on claims that Disney cut its own internal deals and cut Celador out of the process, effectively denying the company of revenue it claims it was owned.

Recently the trial was held and the jury agreed with the game show’s creators, awarding Celador $269.4 Million in damages.

The Walt Disney Company is expected to appeal the decision. In an issued statement, Disney says, ‘We believe this verdict is fundamentally wrong and will aggressively seek to have it reversed.’